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5 Winter Astrophotography Targets For Beginners

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Winter is my favorite part of the year for astrophotography. As nights getting longer and colder, some fantastic astronomy objects start to appear on the Southern night sky. As Summer Milky Way is probably the most popular astrophotography topic, the Winter sky is the most colorful and diverse. Dress warm, grab your DSLR and telescope, and shoot these 5 Winter astrophotography targets this season!

1. Orion Nebula (M42)

The Orion Nebula and its companion, the Running Man nebula (blue nebulosity above the Orion). I shot this picture with my SkyWatcher Evostar 72ED telescope, Fuji X-T20 camera, and Fornax LighTrack II equatorial mount (check the complete equipment list at the end of the post).

Constellation

Orion

RA (right ascension)

05h 35m 173s

DEC (declination)

−05° 23′ 28″

Magnitude

4.0

Size

66 × 60 arcmins

The king of the Winter sky can be only one – please welcome the Orion nebula! This bright diffuse nebula is THE beginner astrophotography target. It’s visible with a naked eye, it’s very easy localizable, and you can shoot it with almost any fast lens or telescope – the Orion area is so rich in astrophotography treasures.

Finding Orion is really easy because it’s one of the most prominent and most recognizable constellations on the sky. Also, it lies just next to the Sirius, the brightest star on the night sky. Look South for a diamond-like structure; Orion Nebula is there. If you have trouble locating celestial objects on the night sky, use some astronomy apps for your smartphone.

Another very bright object on the night sky, the Pleiades star cluster appears like a little cloud made from stars, even from the center of a moderately-sized city. Thanks to its large size on the sky, the Pleiades star cluster is a perfect target for a small APO telescope. To find out more about how to locate and what camera settings to use for the Seven Sisters star cluster, check out my post on how to photograph the Pleiades star cluster.

3. Flame and Horsehead Nebulae (NGC 2024 and Barnard 33/NGC 2023)

Flame and Horsehead nebulae, the most colorful area of the Winter night sky. It’s simply stunning.

Object

Flame Nebula

Horsehead Nebula

Constellation

Orion

Orion

RA (right ascension)

05h 41m 54s

05h 40m 59s

DEC (declination)

−01° 51′ 0.0″

−02° 27′ 30.0″

Magnitude

7.2

4.5

Size

30 × 30 arcmins

60 × 40 arcmins

One of the most colorful areas on the Winter night sky, the Flame and Horsehead nebulae are favorite Winter astrophotography targets for many astrophotographers on the world, including me. The most recognizable object of the area is, of course, the head of a horse. Be sure to take many subframes to get as much detail of it as your equipment can! Adding an H-alpha data to your RGB image will greatly improve the quality of your photo. And be patient with imaging – the higher the Orion constellation is on the sky, the less light pollution you will have on your picture.

4. California Nebula (NGC 1499)

California Nebula, one of the strongest H-alpha emitters on the night sky. Using an H-alpha filter you can photograph this target even from a Bortle red zone during a full Moon.

Constellation

Perseus

RA (right ascension)

04h 03m 18.00s

DEC (declination)

+36° 25′ 18.0″

Magnitude

6.0

ize

145 × 40 arcmins

The California nebula is a perfect target for your H-alpha astrophotography setup, but even imaging in RGB-only gives fantastic results. You don’t need a big telescope for photographing this nebula, as it’s size on the night sky is relatively huge. Even a telephoto lens (200mm-400mm focal length) will reveal a lot of hidden details of this fantastic beginner target. It’s high in the sky, so light pollution shouldn’t be a big deal.

5. Rosette Nebula (Caldwell 49)

The Rosette nebula

Constellation

Monoceros

RA (right ascension)

06h 33m 45s

DEC (declination)

+04° 59′ 54″

Magnitude

9.0

Angular size

80 × 60 arcmins

The Rosette nebula picture here is another perfect example of an astrophotography target that could greatly benefit from imaging in H-alpha, like the California and Horsehead nebulae pictures above. It’s a quest for my next Winter astrophotography session, as my current picture of the Rosette Nebula above is a stack of RGB data only (but let’s be honest, astro pictures are never complete – you can always add more and more data).

Additional Winter astrophotography targets

Some prominent targets are missed on this list, just because I haven’t had an occasion to photograph them – yet. My next Winter astrophotography targets are:

Heart and Soul Nebulae

Barnard’s Loop (Orion constellation at around 50mm focal length)

Crab Nebula

Flaming Star Nebula

Cone Nebula

Christmas Tree Cluster

Thor’s Helmet

Astrophotography equipment I used to shot these pictures

All the pictures above were shot with my mobile widefield astrophotography setup below, usually from my balcony. I don’t see the Polaris from here (balcony to the South), so my polar alignment is never close-to-perfect, but even then I’m able to catch some quality photons at Winter. I process my data in PixInsight and Affinity Photo on macOS.

About Paweł Białecki

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About Author

Hey there! I'm Paweł, an astrophotographer from Poland and author of this site. I started my astrophotography adventure in 2017 and never looked back. On Astro Photons I share what I've learned so far. Read More…